My Heart Is a Chainsaw

By: Stephen Graham Jones

Narrated by: Cara Gee

Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel

In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest chilling novel that “will give you nightmares. The good kind, of course” (BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.

“Some girls just don’t know how to die…”

Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange.

Alma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life.

Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. She lives in her own world, a world in which protection comes from an unusual source: horror movies…especially the ones where a masked killer seeks revenge on a world that wronged them. And Jade narrates the quirky history of Proofrock as if it is one of those movies. But when blood actually starts to spill into the waters of Indian Lake, she pulls us into her dizzying, encyclopedic mind of blood and masked murderers, and predicts exactly how the plot will unfold.

Yet, even as Jade drags us into her dark fever dream, a surprising and intimate portrait emerges…a portrait of the scared and traumatized little girl beneath the Jason Voorhees mask: angry, yes, but also a girl who easily cries, fiercely loves, and desperately wants a home. A girl whose feelings are too big for her body. My Heart Is a Chainsaw is her story, her homage to horror and revenge and triumph.

©2021 Stephen Graham Jones. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Good, but..

This was a fairly fun book with all the nods to slasher movies I was familiar with and making me want to seek out others mentioned that i wasn't. However I get the feeling that S.G.J. may not know many real females and instead writes the girl he wishes existed when he was 15. Though this is true to varying degrees when most male authors write female roles. Also no one born after 1958 would find Bay of Blood to be an interesting film.

Great writing!

I love horror and to have a main character who knows more than I do about the genre is great. I learned a lot but, with all of the trivia I sometimes got lost on what’s happening in the story. The characters are well fleshed out and interesting, the narration is great and there are a few good twists. All in all well worth the 12+ hours.

Great leading character!

I loved this book…. until the ending. The story was gripping, the characters interesting, I was hooked.
The ending ruined it.
It’s as if the author couldn’t figure out how to tie up the story. It’s a shame as I was truly invested.
The narrator was amazing- she was incredible at bringing Jade to life.
I felt like everyone who was supposed to be there for Jade let her down and left her- the author most of all.

For every 80's Horror fans nostalgic itch

Great story...keeps you wanting more. The horror references come from a place of love as does the story itself. Definitely worth the read.

Wanted to like this more than I did.

I wanted to like this book but it was too frantic. It felt overly stretched and the ending was a bit of a letdown.

Fantastic!

Great story as always from Steven Graham Jones, and awesome narration by Cara Gee. Highly recommend for folks who love horror books, OR horror movies.

GRIPS YOU IN IT'S TEETH AND WON'T LET GO

This latest from the outlaw of horror is nothing short of extraordinary!! I listened to this in 2 days because I literally couldn't stop, it's that great! Slashers aren't my preferred genre of horror, but My Heart Is A Chainsaw makes me see them in a shimmering new light without dulling their sharp edge. You will laugh, you will weep, you will be laying awake gripping the cord of your headphones in terror, and you will fall in love with scrappy Jade Daniels. Stephen Graham Jones, you've done it again!!

Builds to a stunning conclusion

Like a classic slasher, this one has a bit of a slow burn, but the final scenes and some of what is revealed there are brilliant and moving. Great performance also.

A slasher with heart

There’s a LOT of horror references in this story. If you don’t get them all, you’ll be fine.

This story is fast! The main character has a frenetic narration style that takes a minute to get used to, but once you’re buckled in and the ride REALLY starts, you’ll love it.

And because this is a SGJ book, it’s not “just” slasher mayhem violence. It’s a beautiful, poignant story about children and what happens when the people who are supposed to care for them, the ones kids are supposed to be able to trust, fail them completely. It’s about the power of history, and belief, and belonging. It’s as gorgeous as it is gory … and it’s pretty fecking gory.

Wonderful chainsaw ramble through slasher tropes

Read for that voice. For what starts her heart like the chainsaw it is. What a vibrant chainsaw ramble through slasher tropes. Gave a 5 star for how it stuck to the protagonist’s inner life throughout, sometimes to the detriment of the reader’s understanding of what was going on, but to great effect that crescendos to a perfectly broken but resolutely beating heart. This definitely won’t be readable to many, but it was so worth it for me. Loved that POV and how it was allowed to ramble on. Cara Gee did an excellent job narrating the rush of trope considerations and paranoia layering on and on over life and hope and fear and struggle...and that last line that thrums with so much fragile power.